Death toll from storm climbs to 3

The death toll from the weekend nor'easter has risen to three with the recovery of a woman's body this afternoon from the rain-swollen Ramapo River in Mahwah.

Though authorities had yet to formally identify the victim, they said it is almost certainly Mary Patricia Wagner, a 44-year-old Mahwah resident missing since Sunday. The woman's body was found in Wagner's 2003 Ford Taurus, submerged upside-down in the swift-moving river.

"Obviously we believe it was her," Mahwah police Lt. Robert Sinnaeve said. "It was her vehicle."

Formal identification was pending an autopsy by the Bergen County medical examiner.

Wagner is believed to have skidded off an embankment along Route 202 as she returned home from a party Sunday night. A day later, authorities found tire tracks and a broken side-view mirror along the road, but dangerous conditions on the river prevented a water search.

With the Ramapo lower today, police could safely put a boat in the water. They found Wagner's Taurus about 200 feet from the spot where the car went off the road. The body was discovered after police pulled the Taurus from the river.

The storm's two other victims drowned on flooded roadways after their vehicles became disabled.